As US launches $500B Stargate, India can’t afford to be idle in AI race

Not all wars are fought on the battlefield. These days, the race for global dominance most often runs through endless rows of servers, where artificial intelligence (AI) could end up determining which nation leads the future—or gets left behind. Last Tuesday, US President Donald Trump fired what might be the most expensive shot in this new cold war: Stargate, a $500 billion venture that makes even Silicon Valley’s boldest bets look timid. The project, which began with a $100-billion investment from tech giants SoftBank, OpenAI, Oracle, and Abu Dhabi’s MGX, with the remaining to be raised over the next four years, signals America’s determination to maintain its AI supremacy. This investment is among Silicon Valley’s heftiest bets on a single technology, and will potentially tighten the grip of Big Tech on the US economy. The timing was prescient. In the next few days, the world got a taste of China’s engineering prowess and capability in AI with DeepSeek, which achieved sophisticated language capabilities like that of ChatGPT at a fraction of the cost. This demonstrated how quickly the AI landscape can shift. For India, the message is clear: adapt now or risk permanent technological dependence. Despite being a key US ally, India was excluded from the list of 18 nations granted free access to advanced AI chips. These restrictions, introduced under former US President Joe Biden, create a chokehold on critical AI components like Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) and Tensor Processing Units (TPUs)—the very building blocks of AI supremacy. “This shows serious intent to take strong control of AI,” warns Dr Ajai Chowdhry, Founder of HCL and chairman of EPIC Foundation & MGB, National Quantum Mission of India. “We seem to be getting to ‘weaponisation of tech’. For strategic autonomy, we must create our own AI doctrine and start controlling our own data strongly. Also, we must create our own domestic hardware for data centres as it’s going to be very difficult to control our data. The government and the industry must work together to create the strategy for AI. What was thought of yesterday is no longer valid. It should be treated as an emergency!” A beginning, but more needs to be done Last year, India launched the IndiaAI Mission with Rs 10,371.92 crore allocated over five years, with the promise of installing 10,000 specialised AI processors through public-private partnerships. While the initiative seemed ambitious then—with AI estimated to contribute $1 trillion to India’s GDP by 2027 and create over 30 million jobs—Stargate’s announcement makes it look like a drop in the digital ocean. “For countries like India, which are constrained by limited budgets, this raises critical questions about equitable access to advanced AI infrastructure,” says Jameela Sahiba, Senior Programme Manager-AI at The Dialogue, a public policy think-tank. “While Digital Public Infrastructure can offer a scalable foundation for AI innovation, the lack of ultra-high compute capacity may limit the ability to compete in frontier AI research.” Compute capacity refers to the amount of computational power a system, server, or network can provide to perform tasks, process data, or run applications. Piyush Somani, Chairman and Managing Director, ESDS Software Solution Limited, adds that the next 5 years will serve as an inflection point in India’s AI journey.   “The project signals a massive leap toward AI dominance in the world and highlights the crucial need for nations aspiring to lead in technology. With AI estimated to contribute $1 trillion to India’s GDP by 2027 and create over 30 million jobs, now is the time to invest in sovereign AI infrastructure,” says Somani.